As reported by Fox News:
President Obama has authorized sending dozens of Special Operations Forces to Syria to help advise local ground troops and coalition efforts in the fight against the Islamic State, officials said Friday.
The decision comes after administration officials earlier this week said they were looking at moving U.S. troops closer to the front lines in the anti-ISIS fight, as part of a broader effort to recharge the struggling campaign.
The deployment marks the first time U.S. troops will be working openly on the ground in Syria. A senior administration official called it a "small" deployment, involving "fewer than 50" Special Ops Forces to northern Syria.
Several other steps were also announced Friday, including a new potential deployment to Iraq.
According to the official, the administration is working with the Iraqi government to set up a "Special Operations Force (SOF) task force to further enhance our ability to target ISIL leaders and networks." The official also says the U.S. will be sending additional aircraft, including F-15 fighters and A-10s, to the Incirlik air base in Turkey.
I'm confused. Whom, exactly, are these special operations forces supposed to "advise" in Syria -- the four to five fellas remaining out of the 54 that were trained with $45 million of taxpayer funds? And does anyone realize the complexity of the Syrian battlespace? You've got Russian ground troops along with Russian fighter and helicopter attack forces; Iranian Quds forces; Hezbollah; and, as we shared with you, Cuban special operations forces. That, along with Al Nusra Front (al-Qaeda affiliated) and ISIS fighters.
The Syrian rebels who were trained and armed are being decimated by the Russian-backed force. Does anyone know the Russian troop strength on the ground in Syria?
Oh and why did we just tell the enemy we're sending 50 troops into that zone? There's a reason why the Obama administration makes such pronouncements: the facade of doing something when nothing will be done.
ISIS has not been degraded, destroyed or defeated, and I can't fathom how a deployment of 50 or so -- what happened to the previous groups deployed? -- will make a difference. I completely understand deploying F-15s and A-10s into the theater, but if our troops are only there to advise, then who's calling in the strikes?
For those who understand history, this is how the morass that came to be known as Vietnam began -- U.S. Army Special Forces advisors. Matter of fact, President Kennedy created the U.S. Special Forces just for this mission.
Ladies and Gents, we're way beyond Foreign Internal Defense (FID). The mission for special operators is now direct action and we can't achieve any goals and objectives with 50 warriors on the ground. Mind you, they're exceptional, but in the calculus of the battlefield and offensive operations, one needs a 3:1 ratio. In Vietnam, we even had a serious technological advantage over the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), but it didn't matter in the end.